It won’t be long till everything feels stale, living in one place, but at least that place happens to be one of the liveliest, and one of my favorite, places on Earth – NYC.

There are many reasons for wanting to return:

My sweet tutoring families and petsit clients.

Reconnecting with my NYC friends…

Home is where beautiful, cuddly petsit clients, like Edith, live.

I have learned many lessons from my trip, throwing away the routine, the landscape, and safety nets of my usual life.

These are some of the big takeaways.

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Being Away From My Husband

During our week in Vegas that was extended from 3 days to 8, thanks to a snow storm in NYC

At first it seemed daunting to leave the man I had been married to for only 10 months before embarking on my trip. There was a sense of betrayal that could be assumed of thinking of our relationship in a traditional sense. However, I could only fathom leaving because our relationship is so secure.

I’ve never met anyone that fits me like Sandy, nor did I ever envision doing so. We certainly had our rough patches, as many of you read, but things worked out, despite the distance. 60 nights without him is less than ideal, but it made the ones we had together when he visited all the more enchanting.

Sandy Patch, one of a kind

Being able to living apart without the separation anxiety I felt in the past makes me all the more grateful to have a partner who supported me in traveling for work.

Best Friends

Grace Reuter, my partner and friend.

Grace is still upset with me because when I quit the 10 Billion Lives Tour, due to the negligence and dangerous conditions in which it was run, I was replaced with the lazy and neglectful manager who had caused our tour to be such a nightmare. However, the month we had living tightly as sardines packed in a van, with a 4 foot footprint to swivel within, was all about having each other’s back and making one another laugh on long drives through the middle of countrified, rural California. She is an inspiring individual with a phenomenal work ethic and kind heart.

I loved that girl in a way akin to the love I had for my best friends and room mates, Amy and Michelle, during college. It’s been over a decade since I’ve had that tight, girl-to-girl friendship, and while I have had many great girl-to-guy friendships over the years, there is something special to teaming up and becoming best friends with someone of your own gender.

Munching on Del Tacos and endless delicious salsa and pickled carrots during our weekend with the Carter family

I left the tour with a renewed interest in working harder on my friendships back home.

Co Workers

Not exactly my Co worker, but she sure felt it with all the time I spent living with her and her husband, and with our conversations discussing our similar work clientele. Nicki is a phenomenal art and school therapist in SF.

When drama went down at the tutoring office I used to work for, I jumped ship. Meeting a co worker who was much less capable than me, but much more pandering to our megalomaniacal and racist boss, was enough to tip me over and decide I wanted to quit and start freelancing. Young and impressionable, I too simply few the conclusion that I did not like having co workers.
However, in the intervening years, and more strongly in the last few months, I have come to identify a need for camaraderie at work. While I used to relish the privacy of being able to spend hours, sometimes full days, working on my own, I now find the quiet hours empty as they advance.

I’m now excited to join an office of like minded individuals and have multiple interviews set up next week to work either for tutoring companies or with busy families.

At the end of the day, it’s not the end point, it’s the journey that counts in my nomadic string of travels on the West Coast.

We are Jen and Sandy, professional nomads in New York City. We live off the urban land and document our findings along the way. We pay no rent, no utilities, and live sustainably off $100/week. Read more about us here.